Horror movie, released in
1990. Directed and written by
William Peter Blatty, based on his
novel "
Legion". Starred
George C. Scott as
Lt. Kinderman,
Ed Flanders as
Father Dyer,
Brad Dourif as the
Gemini Killer, and
an actor I dare not identify for fear of spoiling the surprise as
Patient X. Also featured
bizarre cameos by
C. Everett Koop,
Larry King,
Fabio,
Samuel L. Jackson,
John Thompson (the
basketball coach of the
Georgetown Hoyas), and
Patrick Ewing.
In some ways, this is a tremendous
disappointment -- it's nowhere near as
frightening as the original "
Exorcist", and the
studio obviously worked hard to try to make it
appeal more to the
hardcore gorehounds.
Nevertheless, I'd still recommend it because it has a lot of delicious,
creepy chills. Particularly notable: the surprised
crucifix; the
ghoulishly
grinning
statue; the lengthy
static shot in the
hospital corridor (can't say more, but the first time I saw it, I had to
rewind the tape to make sure it had really happened), and
Fabio as an
angel (/me
shivers).
George C. Scott and
Brad Dourif both
overact quite a bit, but really, isn't that when they do their best work? Far more
subtle is the guy who plays
Patient X -- surely one of the last people I expected to see in this
film. The
plot is based around the real-world exploits of the
infamous Zodiac Killer, with various elements from the original "
Exorcist" mixed in for good measure. Wisely, the
film pretends that "
Exorcist II" never existed.